The present invention relates to an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus and particularly to an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus permitting interchange of transducer arrays of an ultrasound probe.
Conventionally, ultrasound diagnostic apparatus using ultrasound images are employed in medicine. In general, this type of ultrasound diagnostic apparatus comprises an ultrasound probe having a built-in transducer array and an apparatus body connected to the ultrasound probe. The ultrasound probe transmits an ultrasonic wave toward a subject, receives an ultrasonic echo from the subject, and the apparatus body electrically processes reception signals to generate an ultrasound image.
In recent years, there have been developed portable ultrasound diagnostic apparatus that can be transported and placed near a bed or brought to a site where emergency medical care is needed. There have also been conceived ultrasound diagnostic apparatus having a configuration whereby the ultrasound probe and the apparatus body are connected to each other by wireless communication to improve operability. Such ultrasound diagnostic apparatus are required to be available in reduced dimensions for convenience.
Ultrasound diagnostic apparatus are used to diagnose subjects for various diagnosis purposes depending on which an appropriate frequency band may often vary. Thus, one may consider using an ultrasound probe selected according to the diagnosis purpose from a plurality of ultrasound probes having different frequency bands kept ready for use and connecting the selected probe to the apparatus body. However, because the ultrasound probes are generally expensive, keeping a plurality of ultrasound probes available for use increases the costs. Thus, there is a demand for a transducer array that is detachably provided in the ultrasound probe so that a transducer array having a suitable frequency band for the diagnosis purpose may be selected and used.
For example, Patent Literature 1 describes an ultrasound diagnostic system wherein an ultrasound probe is comprised of a transducer head containing a transducer array and a beamforming module for processing the signals from the transducer head for beamforming, and wherein the transducer head is detachably mounted to the beamforming module.
Patent Literature 2 describes an ultrasound diagnostic apparatus wherein an ultrasound probe is comprised of a transducer array and a housing for holding the transducer array, and wherein the transducer array is detachably mounted to the housing.